This invention relates to the densification (melting) of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) also known as Styrofoam. The present invention relates particularly to the densification of used Styrofoam products through conductive heat and melting it into a block form to be used later in its recycling.
Styrofoam products are widely used in the food service industry such as cafeteria's and lunch rooms for storing and serving food and drink. Despite the suitability of Styrofoam for these purposes, the cost of its disposal along with the environmental impact it has on our natural resources, many are faced with finding alternative methods for its disposal.
Presently, in the cafeteria/lunchroom settings where they serve on Styrofoam trays, it is customary to dispose of the tray by either dumping the tray along with the remaining food left on the tray into a garbage bag and dispose of all its contents. Others remove any food that is left on the tray into one garbage bag and stack and fill another bag with the trays, and in the process reduce their bag usage and freeing-up more dumpster space allowing for less pick-ups of the dumpster.
In recent years numerous companies in the plastic recycling industry have developed machines for the purpose of densifying Styrofoam products through hydraulic and pneumatic compression, heat transfer and chemical processes. These machines are usually used at large industrial settings along with strict processing requirements such as shredding, cleaning and filtering of the Styrofoam prior to densifying.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.